SANTEE – World history teacher Doug Coffin still can't say the name Charles Andrew Williams. To Coffin, he's merely "the shooter" – a faceless moniker.

It's helped the Santana High School teacher cope with the school shooting that stunned the nation two years ago today.

Williams, a 15-year-old student at the time, opened fire on the East County campus from the boys' bathroom at 9:20 a.m. Coffin was in the "eye of the storm" when the shooting started, and it sounded more like firecrackers than bullets, he said.

The school is marking the tragedy that killed students Randy Gordon and Bryan Zuckor and injured 13 others with a solemn garden ceremony and a moment of silence.

School officials say today's ceremony will be a brief acknowledgement of the past and a sign that the school is determined to move forward.

Santana's principal, Karen Degischer, said the school does not want to relive the tragedy. Students and staff would rather get on with the healing process, she said.

"If we replay those scenes, then we replay it for the community, we replay it for the students, we replay it for everyone, and I don't think that's helpful," Degischer said. "We don't move on."

Only half of Santana's current student population was attending Santana at the time of the shooting. Williams, upset about being bullied, used a .22-caliber revolver he took from his father's gun cabinet.

The teen-ager pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder and was sentenced in August to 50 years to life in prison.

The long road ahead for Williams seems to have been eclipsed by a spirit among Santana's student body that dreams of going to college and making a contribution to society.

English teacher Martin Johnson, who was on campus the day of the shooting, said his students have been remarkably resilient, moving along with life plans despite the occasional look backward.

Many of his seniors who applied to college this year said the shooting was a defining moment in their lives.

"The essays as a group tended to be 'here is this remarkable thing that I experienced . . . and here is how I've been able to move through it, and beyond it.' " Johnson said.

"(There were) some remarkably mature insights and also very generous insights."

Forgiving the perpetrator is a different story. Coffin rejects the notion that Williams was pressured into lashing out by bullying and harassment.

"Bringing a gun to school and shooting people, isn't that the ultimate form of bullying?" he asked.